Do you fit in with your area?

Have you ever wondered what the typical resident of your suburb looks like? Perhaps you live in a vibrant family area, or feel like you’re surrounded by busy singles in suits?

Property 360 can help you get across the most meaningful stats and insights about your suburb and the people who live there – and how you fit into the mix!

It allows you to enter your address (or the address you’re thinking of relocating to) and discover all kinds of interesting demographic info from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as well as property price trends and recent sales.

Simply type the address into the search bar to reveal photographs and the sold and rental history of your home. Below that, you’ll find suggestions of similar nearby properties – useful for comparing how your place stacks up to the competition.

How does your household compare?

Scroll down and you can “Meet the Neighbours”: not only will you find the median monthly personal and household incomes, there’s also a breakdown of weekly incomes, which shows how your pocket compares to the rest of the suburb.

For the nosy-parkers amongst us, you can find the median your neighbours are paying on their mortgage each month, and view a graph that tracks property trends (both real estate sales prices and rental figures) over time.

Further down the page, the “Neighbouring Properties” section allows you to take a sneak peek inside that intriguing place next door, and view the rental and sales history for it, too.

The page will show you what percentage of residents fall into various age groups, and household composition—is the area mainly made up of couples with children? Single parents? Plenty of students? Or childless couples? The occupancy graph reveals how many of your neighbours own their home outright, how many are paying off a mortgage, and the percentage of renters. You can even view the top 5 occupations held by people in your suburb—is your industry on the list?

Why demographics matter

Humans have been studying populations and people for centuries—and for good reason. How much you enjoy living in an area can be directly linked to those around you, and how well you can co-exist with them.

Knowing a suburb’s demographic profile can be a great advantage when you’re deciding on a place to live. If you have (or are planning) a family, you’ll probably want an area full of other families with young kids, and all of the amenities and services (think parks, childcare, walking tracks) that go with them.

Meanwhile, downsizing empty-nesters may prefer a quieter life surrounded by similar couples. Demographics are used by councils and developers to plan their works, and in turn how a suburb evolves.

Factors such as the proportion of people aged over 50, or the number of couples with children, may impact planning and development in the future. Family suburbs will be more likely to gain new schools, parks and play centres, while those with older residents could see aged care facilities popping up in the future.

The data can also be useful if you’re thinking of buying an investment property, or renting your home out—it can be helpful to know the distribution of houses versus units, and tenants versus owner-occupiers, as well median rents, when deciding where to invest.